NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

This manual page describes the language used by maildrop to filter E-mail messages. The
mail filtering instructions are read from a file. The language is loosely structured, it
is based on pattern matching. The language has a distinct lexical and syntactical
structure, very similar to Perl's, but it is important to note that it is not Perl, and is
very different from Perl, in certain cases.
If the filtering instructions do not exist, maildrop delivers the message to the default
mailbox without doing any additional processing, making it indistinguishable from the
usual mail delivery agent.
It is important to note that maildrop reads and parses the filter file before doing
anything. If there are any errors maildrop prints an error message, and terminates with
the exit code set to EX_TEMPFAIL. A compliant mail transport agent should re-queue the
message for a later delivery attempt. Hopefully, most simple syntax errors will not cause
mail to be bounced back if the error is caught and fixed quickly.
Environmentmaildrop uses variables to access and manipulate messages. Variables are arbitrary text
accessed by referring to the name of the variable, such as HOME, or DEFAULT. Text is
placed into a variable by using an assignment statement, such as:
FILE="IN.junk"
This statement puts the text "IN.junk" (without the quotes) into a variable whose name is
FILE. Later, the contents of a variable are accessed by using the $ symbol and the name
for the variable. For example:
to $FILE
This will deliver the current message to the mailbox file (or a maildir directory) named
"IN.junk".
maildrop initially creates variables from the environment variables of the operating
system, UNLESS maildrop runs in delivery mode. Each operating system environment variable
becomes a maildrop variable. When running in delivery mode, maildrop does not import the
environment for security reasons, except for the environment variables that define the
process locale (LANG, LANGUAGE, and LC_*), which are still imported.
In all cases maildrop resets the following variables to their default values: HOME,
DEFAULT, SHELL, PATH, LOCKEXT, LOCKREFRESH, LOCKSLEEP, LOCKTIMEOUT, MAILDIRQUOTA, SENDMAIL
and LOGNAME.
There's one exception to this rule which applies to the version of maildrop that comes
with the Couriermailserver[1]. The following does not apply to the standalone version of
maildrop: when running in delivery mode, if the -d flag was not used, or if it specifies
the same userid as the one that's running maildrop: the following variables are
automatically imported from the environment: HOME, SHELL, LOGNAME and MAILDIRQUOTA. These
environment variables are initialized by the Courier mail server prior to running
maildrop. Additionally, the initial value for the DEFAULT maildrop variable is imported
from the MAILDROPDEFAULT environment variable. This is because the Courier mail server
overloads the DEFAULT environment variable to store the defaulted portion of the local
mailbox address. See the dot-courier(5)[2] man page in the Courier mail server
distribution. You can get the Courier mail server's DEFAULT value by using the import
command. Note, however, that this will clobber the old contents of DEFAULT, which is
probably not what you want. The right way to do this would be something like this:
SAVEDEFAULT=$DEFAULT
import DEFAULT
LOCALDEFAULT=$DEFAULT
DEFAULT=$SAVEDEFAULT
All internal variables are exported back as environment variables when maildrop runs an
external command. Changes to internal variables, made by the filter file, are reflected in
the exported environment.
Lexicalstructure
Most whitespace is generally ignored. The # character introduces a comment running to the
end of the line, which is also ignored. Unlike other mail filters, maildrop parses the
filter file before taking any action with the message. If there are syntax errors in the
file, maildrop displays an error message, and returns EX_TEMPFAIL. That should cause the
mail message to remain in the queue, and, hopefully allow the problem to be corrected,
without bouncing any mail.
Note
In maildrop, the end of line is a lexical token. In order to continue a long statement
on the next line, terminate the line with a backslash character.
Literaltext
Literal text in the maildrop filtering language is surrounded by either single or double
quotes. In order to enter a single quote into a text literal surrounded by single quotes,
or a double quote into a literal surrounded by double quotes, prefix it with a backslash
character. Use two backslash characters characters to enter one backslash character in the
text literal.
Note
A backslash followed by either a backslash, or a matching quote, is the only situation
where the backslash character is actually removed, leaving only the following
character in the actual text literal. If a backslash character is followed by any
other character, the backslash is NOT removed.
Multiple text literals in a row are automatically concatenated, even if they use different
quotes. For example:
FOOBAR="Foo"'bar'
SAVEDEFAULT=$DEFAULT
import DEFAULT
LOCALDEFAULT=$DEFAULT
DEFAULT=$SAVEDEFAULT
This sets the variable FOOBAR to the text "Foobar".
Variablesubstitution
Variable substitution is performed on text literals that's surrounded by double quotation
marks. The "$" character, followed by a variable name, is replaced by that variable's
contents.
MAILBOX="$HOME/Mailbox"
This sets the variable MAILBOX to the contents of the variable HOME followed by
"/Mailbox". Variable names must begin with an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, or an
underscore. Following that, all letters, digits, and underscores are taken as a variable
name, and its contents replace the $ sign, and the variable name. It is possible to access
variables whose name includes other characters, by using braces as follows:
MAILBOX="${HOME-WORD}/Mailbox"
Inserts the contents of the HOME-WORD variable. If the variable does not exist, the empty
text literal is used to replace the variable name. It is not possible to access variables
whose names include the } character.
If the $ character is not followed by a left brace, letter, or an underscore, the $
character remains unmolested in the text literal. A backslash followed by the $ character
results in a $ character in the text literal, without doing any variable substitution.
Variable substitution is not done in text literals which are surrounded by single quotes
(apostrophes).
Commandlineargumentsmaildrop initializes special variables: $1, $2, and so on, with additional parameters
specified on the maildrop command line. A filter file may use those variables just like
any other variables.
Predefinedvariables
The following variables are automatically defined by maildrop. The default values for the
following variables may be changed by the system administrator. For security reasons, the
values of the following variables are always reset to their default values, and are never
imported from the environment:
DEFAULT
The default mailbox to deliver the message to. If the filter file does not indicate a
mailbox to deliver this message to, the message is delivered to this mailbox. The
default mailbox is defined by the system administrator.
FROM
Message envelope sender. This is usually the same address as what appears in the From:
header, but may not be. This information may or may not be available to maildrop on
your system. The message envelope sender is usually specified with the -f option to
maildrop. If the -f option is not given, maildrop looks for the From_ line in the
message. As the last resort, FROM defaults to the userid which invoked maildrop. Note
that FROM may be empty - the message envelope sender is empty for bounce messages.
HOME
Home directory of the user running maildrop.
HOSTNAME
Network name of the machine running maildrop. Obtained from gethostname(3).
LOCKEXT
Extension for dot-lock files (default: .lock).
LOCKREFRESH
Refresh interval, in seconds, for dot-locks (default: 15). When maildrop dot-locks a
mailbox, maildrop tries to refresh the lock periodically in order to keep other
programs from removing a stale dot-lock. This is only required if a dot-lock exists
for a prolonged period of time, which should be discouraged anyway.
LOCKSLEEP
Number of seconds to wait to try again to create a dot-lock file, if one already
exists (default: 5).
LOCKTIMEOUT
Number of seconds to wait before removing a stale dot-lock file (default: 60). If a
dot-lock file still exists after LOCKTIMEOUT seconds, maildrop assumes that the
process holding the lock no longer exists, and the dot-lock file can be safely
removed. After removing the dot-lock file, maildrop waits LOCKSLEEP seconds before
trying to create its own dot-lock file, in order to avoid a race condition with
another process which is also trying to remove the same stale dot-lock, at the same
time.
LOGNAME
Name of the user to who the message is being delivered.
MAILDROP_OLD_REGEXP
Revert to using the old legacy pattern matching engine. Versions of maildrop prior to
version 2.0 (included in the Courier mail server 0.51, and earlier), used a built-in
pattern matching engine, instead of using the PCRE library (see the “Patterns”
section). maildrop 1.x used a different syntax for patterns, which is no longer
described in this manual page. The old pattern matching engine is still available, by
setting MAILDROP_OLD_REGEXP to “1”. Setting this variable will use the legacy pattern
matching engine for the rest of the maildrop recipe file.
The pattern matching engine will be removed completely in a future version of
maildrop. This setting provides for a transitional period of converting old recipes.
MAILDROP_OLD_REGEXP can be set to “1” in the global maildroprc file, then reset to “0”
in each individual maildrop recipe file, after it gets converted to the new syntax.
MAILFILTER
This is the name of the original filter file that was given to maildrop on the command
line. This is mostly useful to -default filter files, it allows them to obtain the
valueofthe-Moption[3] specified on the command line.
PATH
Command execution path. maildrop resets PATH to the system default (usually
/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin).
SENDMAIL
The mail delivery agent. When maildrop is instructed to deliver the message to a
mailbox whose name begins with the ! character, this is interpreted as a request to
forward the message. The SENDMAIL command is executed to forward the message.
SHELL
The login shell. The shell is used to execute all commands invoked by maildrop.
VERBOSE
Current Debug level (default: 0). Setting VERBOSE to progressive higher values,
between 1 and 9, produces debugging output on standard error. maildrop ignores the
VERBOSE variable in delivery mode (in order not to confuse the mail transport agent).
UMASK
The file creation mode mask, in octal. The default setting of 077 creates mailboxes
that are readable and writable by the owner only. Use 007 to create mailboxes that are
readable/writable by both owner and the group. Use 037 to create mailboxes that are
readable by both owner and group, but writable by owner only. Permissions on existing
mailboxes are not changed, this setting affects only new mailboxes. When delivering to
maildirs this setting sets the permissions on new messages only. Access permissions on
messages in maildirs are also affected by the permissions on the maildir directories.
Otherspecialvariables
The following variables are automatically used by maildrop when the filter file is being
processed:
EXITCODE
Return code for maildrop. When maildrop successfully delivers a message, it terminates
with this exit code, which defaults to 0. When the to or the cc command is used to
deliver the message to an external process, via a pipe, maildrop will set this
variable to the exit code of the external process. Since maildrop immediately
terminates after completing the to command this means that maildrop's exit code will
be the exit code of the external process. If the to command does not deliver the
message to a process you must set EXITCODE before the to command, since maildrop
terminates immediately after finishing the delivery.
KEYWORDS
The KEYWORDS variable is used only when delivering a message to a maildir, and
implements the optional IMAP keyword extension as implemented in the CourierIMAPserver[1]. It may be optionally initialized to contain a comma-separate list of
keywords. The to, or the cc command, delivers the message to the maildir normally, but
also associated the list of keywords in KEYWORDS with the newly delivered message.
KEYWORDS must be set before the message is delivered to a maildir. The contents of
KEYWORDS are ignored, when delivering on an mbox folder.
LINES
Number of lines in the current message. Note that this may be an approximation. It may
or may not take into account the -A option, or any mbox "From_" lines. Use this as
criteria for filtering, nothing more.
MAILDIRQUOTA
Set this variable in order to manually enforce a maximum size on ANY maildir where the
message is delivered. This is an optional feature that must be enabled by the system
administrator, see maildirquota(8)[4] for more information.
RETURNCODE
This variable is set when maildrop runs the xfilter[5] command, or a command that's
specified within a pair of backtick characters ( command substitution ). The
RETURNCODE variable will be set to the exit code of the command, after it completes.
SIZE
Number of bytes in the message. This may or may not include the -A option, and the
mbox From_ line. Use this as a criteria for filtering, nothing more.
Unquotedtext
All text strings in filter files should be in single, or double quotes. However, for
convenience sake, quotes can be omitted under certain circumstances.
Text that includes ONLY letters, digits, and the following characters: _-.:/${}@ may
appear without quotes. Note that this does not allow spaces, or backslashes to be entered,
however the text is still variable-substituted, and the substituted text may contain other
characters.
Also, note that patterns (see below) begin with the slash character. Normally, anything
that begins with the slash is interpreted as a pattern. However, text immediately after
“VARIABLE=” is interpreted as a string even if it begins with a slash. This is why
something like:
MAILDIR=/var/mail
works as expected. Using quotes, though, is highly recommended. You must use quotes to set
a variable to a lone slash, because an unquoted slash is interpreted as a division sign.
Long double or singly-quoted text can be broken across multiple lines by ending the line
with a lone backslash character, like this:
TEXT="This is a long \
text string"
The backslash, the newline, and all leading whitespace on the next line is removed,
resulting in "This is a long text string".
Commandsubstitution
Text enclosed in back-tick characters is interpreted as a shell command. The shell command
is executed as a child process by maildrop. Its output is used in place of the command.
For example:
DIR=`ls`
places the names of the files in the current directory into the DIR variable.
The output of the command will have all newline characters replaced by spaces, and leading
and trailing spaces will be stripped (multiple spaces are not removed, though). Also, the
contents of the message being delivered is made available to the command on standard
input.
Patterns
The pattern syntax in maildrop is similar to the grep command's syntax, with some minor
differences. A pattern takes the following form in the filter file:
/pattern/:optionspattern specifies the text to look for in the message. pattern must not begin with a
space, otherwise the leading slash will then be interpreted as a division sign. If you
must search for text that starts with a space, use something like "/[ ] ... /".
The general syntax of maildrop's patterns is described in the pcrepattern(3) manual page,
with certain exceptions noted below. maildrop uses the PCRE[6] library to implement
pattern matching. Not all features in PCRE are available in maildrop, and the “options”
part, which follows the pattern specification, changes the pattern matching further.
Consult the pcrepattern(3) manual page for more information, but note the following
exceptions:
· UTF-8 string matching is not presently supported.
· Internal options settings are not supported (but see the “D” maildrop option, below).
Do not include option settings in the pattern, doing so will lead to undefined
results.
· Named subpatterns are not implemented. Numbered subpatterns are implemented, see
“Pattern Match Results”, below.
Patternoptions
Following /pattern/, there may be an optional colon, followed by one. or more options. The
following options may be specified in any order:
h
Match this pattern against the message header.
b
Match this pattern against the message body.
D
This is a case sensitive match. Normally the patterns match either uppercase or
lowercase text. /john/ will match "John", "john", or "JOHN". Specify the D option for
a case-sensitive search: lowercase letters in the pattern must match lowercase letters
in the message; ditto for uppercase.
If neither 'h' or 'b' is specified, the pattern is matched against the header only.
Specifying the 'b' option causes the pattern to be matched against the message body.
Specifying both causes the pattern to be matched against the entire message.
Normally, each line in the message gets matched against the pattern individually. When
applying patterns to a header, multi-line headers (headers split on several lines by
beginning each continuation line with whitespace) are silently combined into a single
line, before the pattern is applied.
Weightedscoring
Patterns are evaluated by maildrop as any other numerical expression. If a pattern is
found, maildrop's filter interprets the results of the pattern match as number 1, or true,
for filtering purposes. If a pattern is not found the results of the pattern search is
zero. Once a pattern is found, the search stops. Second, and subsequent occurrences of the
same pattern are NOT searched for.
maildrop can also do weighted scoring. In weighted scoring, multiple occurrences of the
same pattern are used to calculate a numerical score.
To use a weighted search, specify the pattern as follows:
/pattern/:options,xxx,yyy
where xxx and yyy are two numbers. yyy is optional -- it will default to 1, if missing.
The first occurrence of the pattern is evaluated as xxx. The second occurrence of the
pattern is evaluated as xxx*yyy, the third as xxx*yyy*yyy, etc... All occurrences of the
pattern are added up to calculate the final score.
Notemaildrop does not recognize multiple occurrences of the same pattern in the same line.
Multiple occurences of the same pattern in one line count as one occurence.
PatternMatchResults
After a pattern is successfully matched, the actual text that is matched is placed in the
MATCH variable. For example:
/^From:.*/
matches a line of the form:
From: postmaster@localhost .PP Here the variable MATCH will be set to "From:
postmaster@localhost", which can be used in subsequent statements.
If the pattern contains subpatterns, the portions of the text that match the first
subpattern is placed in the MATCH1 variable. The second subpattern, if any, is placed in
MATCH2, and so on:
/^From:\s+(.*)@(.*)/
matched against the same line will set MATCH to “From: postmaster@localhost”, MATCH1 to
“postmaster”, and MATCH2 to “localhost”. Of course, in real world the “From:” header is
usually much more complicated, and can't be handled that easily. This is just an
illustrative example.
Note
Subpatterns are not processed in the foreach statement.
Conversionofmaildrop1.xpatternsto2.0
Although the new PCRE-based pattern matching code in maildrop is completely different from
the built-in pattern matching code in maildrop 1.x, very few changes will be required to
convert recipes to the new syntax. The only major differences are:
· The subexpression format has changed. Any pattern that uses subexpression needs to be
converted. Additionally, references to MATCH2 must be replaced with MATCH1, MATCH3 to
MATCH2, and so on. References to plain old MATCH will remain the same.
· The “w” pattern option is no longer possible, with PCRE. The very few recipes that use
this option, if any actually exist, will have to be rewritten in some other fashion.
Expressions
Although maildrop evaluates expressions numerically, results of expressions are stored as
text literals. When necessary, text literals are converted to numbers, then the results of
a mathematical operation is converted back into a text literal.
Operators
The following operators carry their usual meaning, and are listed in order from lowest
precedence, to the highest:
||
&&
< <= > >= == != lt le gt ge eq ne
|
&
+ -
* /
=~ /pattern/
/pattern/ ! ~ function()Variableassignment
VARIABLE=expression
Assigns the result of the expression to VARIABLE (note no leading $ in front of
variable).
Note
If VARIABLE is NOT surrounded by quotes, then it may contain only letters,
numbers, underscores, dashes, and a selected few other characters. In order to
initialize a variable whose name contains non-standard punctuation marks, surround
the name of the variable with quotes.
cc-deliveracopyofthemessage
cc expression
The cc statement is very similar to the to statement, except that after delivering the
message maildrop continues to process the filter file, unlike the to statement which
immediately terminates maildrop after the delivery is complete. Essentially, the
message is carbon copied to the given mailbox, and may be delivered again to another
mailbox by another cc or to statement.
Seetheto statement[7] for more details. When cc is used to deliver a message to a
process maildrop will set the EXITCODE variable to the process's exit code.
dotlock-createamanualdot-lock
dotlock expression {
...
}
maildrop automatically creates a lock when a message is delivered to a mailbox.
Depending upon your system configuration, maildrop will use either dot-locks, or the
flock() system call.
The dotlock statement creates an explicit dot-lock file. Use the flock statement[8] to
create an explicit flock() lock.
The expression is a filename that should be used as a lock file. maildrop creates the
indicated dot-lock, executes the filtering instructions contained within the { ... }
block, and removes the lock. The expression must be the name of the dot-lock file
itself, NOT the name of the mailbox file you want to lock.
Note
With manual locking, it is possible to deadlock multiple maildrop processes (or
any other processes that try to claim the same locks).
No deadlock detection is possible with dot-locks, and since maildrop automatically
refreshes all of its dot-locks regularly, they will never go stale. You'll have
maildrop processes hanging in limbo, until their watchdog timers go off, aborting
the mail delivery.
echo-outputdiagnosticinformation
echo expressionmaildrop will print the given text. This is usually used when maildrop runs in
embedded mode, but can be used for debugging purposes. Normally, a newline is printed
after the text. If text is terminated with a \c, no newline will be printed.
exception-trapfatalerrors
exception {
...
}
The exception statement traps errors that would normally cause maildrop to terminate.
If a fatal error is encountered anywhere within the block of statements enclosed by
the exception clause, execution will resume immediately following the exception
clause.
exit-terminatefilteringunconditionally
exit
The exit statement immediately terminates filtering. maildrop's return code is set to
the value of the EXITCODE variable. Normally, maildrop terminates immediately after
successfullydeliveringthemessage[7] to a mailbox. The exit statement causes
maildrop to terminate without delivering the message anywhere.
The exit statement is usually used when maildrop runs in embeddedmode[9], when
message delivery instructions are not allowed.
flock-createanmanualflock()lock
flock expression {
...
}
maildrop automatically creates a lock when a message is delivered to a mailbox.
Depending upon your system configuration, maildrop will use either dot-locks, or the
flock() system call.
The flock statement creates a manual flock() lock. Use the dotlock statement[10] to
create a manual dot-lock file.
The expression is the name of the file that should be locked. maildrop creates the
lock on the indicated file, executes the filtering instructions contained within the {
... } block, and removes the lock.
Note
With manual locking, it is possible to deadlock multiple maildrop processes (or
any other processes that try to claim the same locks). The operating system will
automatically break flock() deadlocks. When that happens, one of the maildrop
processes will terminate immediately. Use the exception statement in order to trap
this exception condition, and execute an alternative set of filtering
instructions.
foreach-iterateovertextsectionsmatchedbyapattern
foreach /pattern/:options
{
...
}
foreach (expression) =~ /pattern/:options
{
...
}
The foreach statement executes a block of statements for each occurrence of the given
pattern in the given message, or expression. On every iteration MATCH variable will be
set to the matched string. All the usual options may be applied to the pattern match,
EXCEPT the following:
,xxx,yyy
Weighted scoring is meaningless, in this context.
( ... )
Subpatterns are not processed. Only the MATCH variable will be set for each found
pattern.
if-conditionalexecution
if (expression)
{
...
}
else
{
...
}
Conditional execution. If expression evaluates to a logical true (note - parenthesis
are required) then the first set of statements is executed. The else keyword, and the
subsequent statements, are optional. If present, and the expression evaluates to a
logical false, the else part is executed.
maildrop evaluates all expression as text strings. In the context of a logical
expression, an empty string, or the number 0 constitutes a logical false value,
anything else is a logical true value.
If the if part, or the else part consists of only one statement, the braces may be
omitted.
Note
The grammar of this if statement is stricter than usual. If you get baffling
syntax errors from maildrop, make sure that the braces, and the if statement,
appear on separate lines. Specifically: the closing parenthesis, the closing
braces, and the else statement, must be at the end of the line (comments are
allowed), and there may not be any blank lines in between (not even ones
containing comments only).
If the else part contains a single if, and nothing else, this may be combined into an
elsif:
if (expression)
{
...
}
elsif (expression)
{
...
}
The above example is logically identical to:
if (expression)
{
...
}
else
{
if (expression)
{
...
}
}
Consecutive elsif sequences are allowed:
if (expression)
{
...
}
elsif (expression)
{
...
}
elsif (expression)
{
...
}
Consecutive occurences of elsif commands eliminate a significant amount of
indentation, and the resulting code is more readable.
import-accessoriginalenvironmentvariable
import variable
When maildrop starts, it normally imports the contents of the environment variables,
and assigns them to internal maildrop variables. For example, if there was an
environment variable FOO, the internal maildrop variable FOO will have the contents of
the environment variable. From then on, FOO will be no different than any other
variable, and when maildrop runs an external command, the contents of maildrop's
variables will be exported as the environment for the command.
Certain variables, like HOME and PATH, are always reset to fixed defaults, for
security reasons. Also, in delivery and embedded modes, the environment is not
imported at all (with the exception of system locale environment variables), and
maildrop starts with only the fixed default variables.
The import statement initializes the specified variable with the contents of the
original environment variable when maildrop started. For example:
echo "PATH is $PATH"
PATH="/bin"
echo "PATH is $PATH"
import PATH
echo "PATH is $PATH"
exit
This results in the following output:
PATH is /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
PATH is /bin
PATH is /home/root/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
This shows that when maildrop starts PATH is set to the fixed default of
/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin. However, the original contents of the PATH environment
variable we different, and the import statement shows what it was.
include-executefilteringinstructionsfromanotherfile
include expression
The include statement reads a file, and executes filtering instructions contained in
that file. Note that the include statement is processed when the current filter file
is being executed. When maildrop reads the initial filter file, any syntax errors in
the filtering instructions are immediately reported, and maildrop will terminate with
a return code of EX_TEMPFAIL. Any errors in files specified by include statements are
NOT reported, because those files will not be read until the include statement is
itself executed.
If the specified file does not exist, or if there are any syntax errors in the file,
maildrop reports the error, and terminates with a return code of EX_TEMPFAIL.
log,logfile-logmessagedeliveries
logfile expression
log expression
Logging in maildrop is normally turned off. The logfile statement specifies the file
where maildrop will log how the message has been disposed of. The parameter is then
name of the file. If the file exists maildrop appends to the file.
For each delivery (the to[7] and cc[11] statements, and default deliveries) maildrop
records the From: and the Subject: fields, together with the current time, in the log
file.
The log statement adds additional logging text to the log file. The log statement
works exactly like the echo statement, except that the text is written to the logfile,
instead of standard output.
to-delivermessagetoamailbox
to expression
The to statement delivers the message to a mailbox. expression must evaluate to a
valid mailbox. A valid mailbox is either a mailbox file, a maildir, or an external
program (which includes forwarding to another address).
The to statement is the final delivery statement. maildrop delivers message, then
immediately terminates, with its return code set to the EXITCODE variable. If there
was an error while delivering the message, maildrop terminates with the EX_TEMPFAIL
exit code. A properly-written mail transport agent should re-queue the message, and
re-attempt delivery at some later time.
An expression that begins with the "|" character specifies an external program to run
to handle the actual delivery. The SHELL variable specifies the shell to execute the
given command. The message is provided to the command on standard input. maildrop's
exit code will be the process's exit code.
An expression that begins with an exclamation mark, "!" specifies a
whitespace-delimited list of E-mail addresses to forward the message to. The program
specified by the SENDMAIL variable is run as an external program, with the list of
E-mail addresses provided as parameters to the program.
Otherwise, expression names the mailbox where maildrop delivers the message. If
expression is a directory, maildrop assumes that the directory is a maildir directory.
Otherwise, maildrop will deliver the message to a file, formatted in traditional
mailbox format. maildrop will use either dot-locking, or flock()-locking when
delivering the message to the file.
while-repeatedlyexecuteablockofstatements
while (expression)
{
...
}
The expression is repeatedly evaluated. Each time it evaluatestoalogicaltrue[12],
the statements inside the braces are executed. When expression evaluates to a logical
false, the while loop is over. Take care to avoid infinite loops.
xfilter-filtermessagethroughanotherprogram
xfilter expressionexpression specifies an external program that maildrop runs to filter the current
message. The current message will be piped to the filter program as standard input.
The output of the filter program replaces the current message being delivered. The
external program must terminate with an exit code of 0. If the external program does
not terminate with an exit code of 0, or if it does not read the message from the
standard input, maildrop terminates with an exit code of EX_TEMPFAIL.
||-logicalorexpression1 || expression2
If expression1 evaluates to a logical true, the result of the || is expression1,
otherwise it's expression2, which is evaluated.
maildrop uses the following concept of true/false: an empty text literal, or a text
literal that consists of the single character "0" is a logical false value. Anything
else is a logical true value.
&&-logicalandexpression1 && expression2
If expression1 evaluates to a logical false, the result of the && is expression1,
otherwise it's expression2, which is evaluated.
maildrop uses the following concept of true/false: an empty text literal, or a text
literal that consists of the single character "0" is a logical false value. Anything
else is a logical true value.
<,<=,>,>=,==,!=-numericalcomparisonexpression1 < expression2expression1 <= expression2expression1 > expression2expression1 >= expression2expression1 == expression2expression1 != expression2
These operators compare their left hand side expression against their right hand side.
These operators compare the numerical values of each side, as floating point numbers.
If the numbers compare as indicated, the result of the comparison is the text string
"1", otherwise it is the text string 0.
Note
Ccomparisons are not associative: "a < b < c" is an error. If it is absolutely
necessary, use "(a < b) < c".
lt,le,gt,ge,eq,ne-textcomparisonexpression1 lt expression2expression1 le expression2expression1 gt expression2expression1 ge expression2expression1 eq expression2expression1 ne expression2
These operators compare their left hand side expression against their right hand side.
These operators compare each side as text strings (alphabetically, although the text
may include anything). If the text strings compare as indicated, the result of the
comparison is the text string "1", otherwise it is the text string 0.
Note
Comparisons are not associative: "a lt b lt c" is an error. If it is absolutely
necessary, use "(a lt b) lt c". (But why would you?).
|-bitwiseorexpression1 | expression2
This is the bitwise or operator. Its result is a 32 bit integer, which is a bitwise-or
combination of the left hand side and the right hand side.
&-bitwiseandexpression1 & expression2
This is the bitwise and operator. Its result is a 32 bit integer, which is a
bitwise-and combination of the left hand side and the right hand side.
+,-,*,/-numericaloperationsexpression1 + expression2expression1 - expression2expression1 * expression2expression1 / expression2
These are numerical, floating point, operators.
=~/pattern/:options-patternmatchagainststringexpression =~ /pattern/:option
The left hand side of the =~ operator can be any expression. The right hand side is
always a pattern specification. The result of the operator is the weighted match of
the pattern against expression (if the options do not specify weighted scoring, the
result is simply 1 if the pattern was found, 0 if not).
See "Patterns[13]" for more information.
/pattern/:options-patternmatchagainstmessage
/pattern/:option
The result of this operator is the weighted match of the pattern against the current
message (if the options do not specify weighted scoring, the result is simply 1 if the
pattern was found, 0 if not).
See "Patterns[13]" for more information.
!,~-logical/bitwisenotoperator.
! expression
~ expression
The result of the ! operator is a logical opposite of its right hand side expression.
If the right hand side expression evaluated to a logical true, the result is a logical
false. If it evaluated to a logical false, the result is a logical true.
maildrop uses the following concept of true/false: an empty text literal, or a text
literal that consists of the single character "0" is a logical false value. Anything
else is a logical true value.
The result of the ~ operator is a bitwise complement of its right hand side
expression. The right hand side expression is evaluated as a 32 bit integer, and the
result of this operator is a bitwise complement of the result.
escape(string)-escapespecialcharactersinastring.escape(expression)
The escape function returns its sole argument with every occurrence of a special
character prefixed by a backslash. A special character is any of the following
characters:
|!$()[]\+*?.&;`'-~<>^{}"
This can used when matchingpatternsections[14], and then taking one section and
matching it again. For example:
if ( /^From:\s*(.*)/ )
{
MATCH1=escape($MATCH1)
if ( /^Subject:.*$MATCH1/ )
{
...
}
}
This example checks if the contents of the From: header can also be found in the
Subject: header. If the escape function were not used, then any special characters in
the From: header that are also used in regular expressions, such as * or +, would
introduce unpredictable behavior, most likely a syntax error.
The reason why this list of special characters also includes characters not used in
maildrop's regular expressions is to allow maildrop's variables to be used on the
command line of a shell command executed by the xfilter command, backtick characters,
or to or cc commands.
Although using data from an external data source is dangerous, and it may result in
inadvertent exploits, using the escape function should hopefully result in fewer
surprises.
gdbmopen,gdbmclose,gdbmfetch,gdbmstore-GDBMsupportinmaildrop
These functions provide support for GDBM database files. See maildropgdbm(5)[15] for
more information.
Note
The system administrator can disable GDBM support in maildrop, so these commands
may not be available to you.
getaddr(string)-extractRFC2822addressesfromaheader.
if ( /^From:\s*(.*)/ )
{
ADDR=getaddr($MATCH1)
}
This function is usually applied to a header that contains RFC2822[16] addresses. It
extracts the actual addresses from the header, without any comments or extraneous
punctuation. Each address is followed by a newline character. For example, if string
contains:
joe@domain.com (Joe Brown), "Alex Smith" <alex@domain.com>, tom@domain.com
The result of the getaddr function is the following string:
joe@domain.com<NL>alex@domain.com<NL>tom@domain.com<NL>
Note
Because getaddr() interprets RFC2822[17] loosely, it is not necessary to strip
off the "To:" or the "Cc:" header from the string, before feeding it to getaddr().
For example, the following snippet of code takes all addresses in the message, and
concatenates them into a single string, separated by spaces:
ADDRLIST=""
foreach /^(To|Cc): .*/
{
foreach (getaddr $MATCH) =~ /.+/
{
ADDRLIST="$ADDRLIST $MATCH"
}
}
Note
In certain rare situations, RFC2822[17] allows spaces to be included in E-mail
addresses, so this example is just educational.
hasaddr(string)-Searchforanaddress.
if ( hasaddr(string) )
{
...
}
"string" is of the form user@domain. The hasaddr function returns 1 if this address is
included in any To:, Cc:,Resent-To:, or Resent-Cc:, header in the message, otherwise
this function returns 0.
This is more than just a simple text search. Each header is parsed according to
RFC822. Addresses found in the header are extracted, ignoring all comments and names.
The remaining addresses are checked, and if "string" is one of them, hasaddr returns
1, otherwise it returns 0.
The comparison is case-insensitive. This actually violates RFC822 (and several others)
a little bit, because the user part of the address may be (but is not required to be)
case sensitive.
length(string)-lengthofastring
if (length(string) > 80)
{
...
}
The length function returns the number of characters in string.
lookup(expr,'filename','options')-readfileforpatterns
if (lookup(expr, file, "option"))
{
...
}
expr is any expression. filename is a name of a file containing a list of patterns.
Note that filename is relative to the current directory, which is the home directory
of the user when maildrop runs in delivery mode, or embedded mode. maildrop then
reads the file. Blank lines will be ignored, as well as any lines that begin with the
# character (comments).
Leading whitespace (but not trailing whitespace, take care) is removed, and the
remaining contents of each line are interpreted as a pattern which is matched against
expr. As soon as the match is found, lookup returns "1". If no match is found after
reading the entire file, lookup returns "0". For example:
if ( /^To:\s*(.*)/ && lookup( $MATCH1, "badto.dat" ))
{
exit
}
The file badto.dat contains the following two lines:
friend@public
^[^@]*$
If a message has a To: header that contains the text "friend@public", or does not
contain at least one @ character, then the message will be silently dropped on the
floor ( maildrop will terminate without delivering the message anywhere).
options are the pattern matching options to use. The only supported option is "D" (the
rest are meaningless, in this case).
Note
Be careful with discarding messages like that. Pattern matching can be tricky, and
a slight miscalculation can cause mail to be unintentionally discarded. It is much
desirable to first deliver message to a separate folder or mailbox, and once the
filter is verified to work correctly, change it so the messages are discarded
completely.
substr(string,start[,count])-returnsubstring
foo=substr($foo, 1, 10)
The substr function extracts characters from string beginning with character #start.
If count is specified, at most count characters starting at position start are kept,
any excess is trimmed.
time-returncurrenttime
foo=time
The time function returns the current time, in seconds, since January 1, 1970. This
function is useful when using GDBM files. See maildropex(7)[18] for an example of
using the time function.
tolower(string)-Convertstringtolowercase.
foo=tolower(string)
This function returns the string with all uppercase characters replaced by lowercase
characters.
toupper(string)-Convertstringtouppercase.
foo=toupper(string)
This function returns the string with all lowercase characters replaced by uppercase
characters.
Statements
The filter file is read by maildrop ($HOME/.mailfilter or another file), and it contains
filtering statements, one per line. The filtering language used by maildrop has a loosely
- defined grammatical structure.
Statements are listed one per line. Multiple statements may be listed on the same line by
separating them with semicolons. To continue a long statement on the next line, terminate
the line with a backslash character.

BUGS

If getaddr() or hasaddr() functions are used on broken headers, the results are
unpredictable.
hasaddr() is completely case insensitive. This actually violates a few RFCs, because the
userid portion of the address could be case-sensitive, but it's not in too many cases, so
there.